Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the MississippiBushnell, David I. (David Ives)
History
Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi
Bushnell, David I. (David Ives)
Algonquian Indians; Caddoan Indians; Indians of North America -- Dwellings; Siouan Indians
On October 6, two days' travel beyond Teal Creek, and at a distance of
about 32 miles above it, "We halted for dinner at a village which we
suppose to have belonged to the Ricaras: it is situated in a low plain
on the river, and consists of about eighty lodges, of an octagonal form,
neatly covered with earth, and placed as close to each other as
possible, and picketed round. The skin canoes, mats, buckets, and
articles of furniture found in the lodges, induce us to suppose that it
had been left in the spring. We found three different sorts of squashes
growing in the village; we also killed an elk near it, and saw two
wolves." On the following day, after advancing about 4 or 5 miles, they
encountered "another village or wintering camp of the Ricaras, composed
of about sixty lodges, built in the same form as those passed yesterday,
with willow and straw mats, baskets, buffalo-skin canoes, remaining
entire in the camp."
The baskets may have included many similar to two rare examples now in
the National Museum, Washington, one of which is shown in plate 52, _a_
(U.S.N.M. 8430).
On October 9, 1804, after passing the mouth of the river called by them
the Wetawhoo or Wetarko, soon to be known as Grand River, which flows
into the Missouri from the west in the present Corson County, South
Dakota, the expedition stopped and held a council with the Indians.
There they remained until October 11, when "At one o'clock we left our
camp with the grand chief and his nephew on board, and at about two
miles anchored below a creek on the south, separating the second and
third village of the Ricaras, which are about half a mile distant from
each other.... These two villages are placed near each other in a high
smooth prairie; a fine situation, except that having no wood the
inhabitants are obliged to go for it across the river to a timbered
lowland opposite to them."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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